Tilak Varma and Virat Kohli in action© BCCI
India registered a thrilling two-wicket victory over England in the second T20I in Chennai on Saturday. With this win, India took a 2-0 lead in the five-match series. Asked to bat first, England posted 165 for 9 in 20 overs with skipper Jos Buttler scoring 45. Later, the hosts kept on losing wickets but Tilak Varma’s crucial knock of 72 not out helped India chase down the target with four balls to spare. With his the performance, Tilak surpassed broke a record of Virat Kohli in the format.
With this knock, Tilak completed his 318 runs after four consecutive T20I innings, without getting dismissed. In the past four innings for India, Tilak scored 107 and 120 against South Africa, 19 and 72 not out vs England.
He has now surpassed the record of Virat Kohli as the Indian batter with most runs in four consecutive T20I innings. Kohli had scored 258 runs in four innings in the format. Third position is held by wicketkeeper-batter Sanju Samson with 257 runs. Tilak is also the first-ever Indian batter to score over 300 runs in four consecutive T20I innings.
“Wicket was slightly two-paced. I was talking with Gautam sir yesterday, he said that, ‘whatever happens, you should play according to the situation, you should be flexible.’ Left-right will be a good option to bat out there, and it’ll be slightly difficult for the bowlers as they should change their lines and lengths. (Gameplan against the short ball) We already played in South Africa, it was actually more difficult than this,” said Tilak during the post-match presentation.
“We prepared but Archer and Wood are really quick. Everyone prepared well, we worked really hard in the nets and that gave us the results. I told him (Bishnoi) to hold the shape and look to hit in the gap. One flick against the fast bowler and one four against Livingstone, it was extraordinary. That made it easier to finish the game,” he added.
The third T20I of the five-match series between India and England will be played on Tuesday in Rajkot.
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